BILL ANALYSIS
AB 973
Page 1
Date of Hearing: January 21, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 973 (Strickland) - As Amended: January 7, 2010
Policy Committee: JudiciaryVote:9 -
0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill limits when a peace officer may take a drug exposed
newborn into temporary custody. Specifically, this bill:
1)Prohibits a peace officer from taking a newborn who is in a
hospital into custody, without a warrant, if all of the
following apply:
a) The newborn or birth mother tested positive for illegal
drugs.
b) The newborn is the subject of a proposed adoption, as
opposed to a petition for adoption.
c) A Health Facilities Minor Release (HFMR) Report has been
completed by the hospital and signed by the birth parent(s)
and adoptive parent(s) or an authorized representative of a
licensed adoption agency.
d) Release of the newborn to a prospective adoptive parent
or an authorized representative of a licensed adoption
agency does not pose an immediate danger to the child.
e) The prospective adoptive parents or the representative
of a licensed adoption agency have provided the peace
officer with specific documents.
2)Requires that DSS study the effects of the release of a minor
to a prospective adoptive parent or licensed adoption agency
pursuant to this legislation, particularly on the health and
safety of the minor, and report its findings to the
Legislature by January 1, 2014.
FISCAL EFFECT
AB 973
Page 2
1)Costs between $200,000 and $350,000 GF for DSS workload and
for contracting with a psychologist to study the data
collected and write the final report.
2)One-time costs in excess of $500,000 GF to develop a data
collection system for adopted children and make the necessary
changes to the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System
to track adopted children.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . This bill seeks to correct a problem in current law,
which makes it difficult to keep newborns out of the foster
care system, by allowing a prospective adoptive parent or a
licensed adoption agency to take temporary custody of a
drug-exposed newborn if certain requirements, designed to
ensure that the child is safe from harm, have been satisfied.
In 2002, AB 2279 (La Suer; Chapter 920, Statutes of 2002) was
enacted to prevent child protective services agencies from
unnecessarily taking a drug-exposed newborn from the hospital
into the foster care system when an adoption plan was in place
and an adoptive home was waiting for the child. The law was
refined in 2003 by AB 962 (La Suer; Chapter 568, Statutes of
2003) to try to correct implementation difficulties with the
original bill. That legislation required that the newborn be
the subject of an adoption petition. However, the author
asserts that in practice, the adoption petition is generally
not available until after the mother and child have been
discharged from the hospital. Thus the current requirements
make it difficult for prospective adoptive parents to take
temporary custody of a drug-exposed baby at the hospital and
keep the child out of the foster care system.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081